One of the secrets to Apple’s success, as its 30th anniversary quickly approaches, is its commitment to innovation. The company has managed to claim a 60% share in the legal digital music market. Its business model is based on users downloading songs as opposed to albums and on sales as opposed to rentals.

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Title: Encuesta de Tecnologías de la información en los hogares (Survey on Information Technologies in Households). Second semester of 2005
Source: Instituto Nacional de Estadística (INE)
Date: April 6, 2006
Abstract: According to a survey by Spain’s National Statistics Institute, 5,200,000 Spanish homes were connected to the Internet during the second semester of 2005, which amounts to a 1.4% increase with respect to the first six months of the same year. Two out of three household connections were broadband, while the number of dial-up connections reduced.
Madrid (45.4%), Catalonia (41.8%) and the Basque Country (39.4%) are the three autonomous communities with the highest percentage of registered Internet users, a figure that sits above the Spanish national average of 34%. Extremadura, Galicia and Andalucía are the communities trailing the list in this category.
With regards to ICT equipment in Spanish homes, the report reveals that more than half of all households (51.9%) have at least one computer, which means a 1.3% increase as compared to the first semester of 2005. Additionally, 80.9% of all homes have a mobile telephone, a percentage nearly identical to the penetration of land-line telephones, which sits at 84.6%.
According to INE data, Spain has 15.5 million Internet users. The majority (81%) access the Internet daily or weekly whereas 19% consider themselves sporadic users. Meanwhile, 65% of the users connect at home compared to 44% who do so at work.
The INE survey also includes a comparison with Eurostat data related to the first semester of 2005. According to Eurostat, just 36% of Spanish homes have Web access, a figure that lies 12 points below the European Union average. This gap is reduced, however, in the penetration rate of broadband, which in Spain is at 21% whereas the rest of the Union is at 23%.

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The expected merger between France’s Alcatel and US-based Lucent, a deal valued at $13.4 billion, will give rise to the largest worldwide telecommunications provider. The merged company, whose name is still unannounced, will be headquartered in Paris and Alcatel will control 60% of the shares, with Lucent Technologies holding the remaining 40%.
One of the objectives of the transaction —which will result in a 10% reduction in the combined staff —is to achieve a greater position in the face of the looming changes in the telecommunications market, especially in the area of applications and services. Another is to increase geographic coverage in order to compete globally while acting like a local company.
The contracts held by the research firm Bell Labs —which is part of Lucent— with the US Government in areas of national security will be left out of the merger transaction. Lucent will create a separate subsidiary with US headquarters for handling these contracts.
Experts predict that the merger between Lucent and Alcatel could be harmful to Nokia and Ericsson, two of the most direct rivals of the American company. Nevertheless, the management at Ericsson have indicated that the merger could actually help them increase their market share in the United States, since operators could look for alternate providers to the future giant to arise from the Alcatel-Lucent merger.
The transaction, which comes just one month after AT&T acquired telecom operator BellSouth, could provoke a rush of new buyouts and mergers in the coming months. In fact, according to Daily Mail, a consortium formed by Telefónica, Verizon and the venture capital firm Blackstone is considering making a takeover bid for Vodafone. If the offer —which if indeed true would still be in its early stages —were to materialize, it could bring on the largest transaction in telecommunications history.

News in Daily Mail, and BBC News

The creator of Windows is not conceding victory to Google and has opened up a new front in the so-called “war of the search engines.” In order to enter the specialized-knowledge realm, the software giant has launched Windows Live Academic Search, a search engine, currently available as a beta version, that will sift through academic papers, articles in journals and notes from university conferences on computer technology, engineering and physics.
The new Microsoft tool, aimed at researchers and students, offers similar functionality to that of the Google Scholar service, which has been up and running since late 2004. Microsoft’s product, however, stands out in that it allows for the use of authors’ names as links to works they have published. Another difference is that users of Windows Live Academic Search can see an abstract by simply placing the cursor on top of the result. At the moment, the beta version of the service is available in English and in seven countries, including Spain.
Microsoft has also launched Windows Live Product Search, which compares prices as Google’s Froogle does.
With the two projects, Microsoft could open up a new revenue source and improve its standing in the market. According to comScore Networks, Microsoft holds just 13.5% of the search engine market in the US, versus 42% by Google.

Article in Information Week
News in News.com and PC World

The reform of the Spanish Intellectual Property Law (Ley de Propiedad Intelectual, or LPI), currently being processed in Parliament, states that all media facilitating the recording of copyright-protected content could be subject to a special tax.
Consumers are up in arms and 15 organizations, including the Internet users association AI (Asociación de Internautas) and FACUA (Federación de Consumidores en Acción), have launched a platform called Todos contra el canon (Everyone Against the Tax). They reject the proposal of a tax being placed on digital media, claiming that the measure penalizes the consumer in that it establishes double taxation: rights are paid upon purchasing or acquiring the content and then consumers pay again in order to save it onto a storage medium. Authors also feel that the text drawn up by the Spanish Government goes against their interests. One of the reasons behind this opinion is that the LPI arbitrarily sets the compensation to be received per private copy.

News in Consumer and Navegante
Articles in La Vanguardia (payment service)

At first sight, the principal criterion which guides Spanish companies in the adoption of information systems is cost. A more detailed analysis reveals however that Spanish managers worry more about the solutions adopted by their colleagues and the opinion of senior management. This text is the translation of a e-Business Center PwC&IESE study entitled "Criteria in the Adoption of Information and Communications Technology." The study was published by the Center in Spanish in April 2005 and was carried out by IESE professors Josep Valor and Sandra Sieber. This is a pioneering investigation in its field because, for the first time, we see a combination of the criteria of rationality, the theories of the diffusion of innovations and those of the psychology of decision-taking. The conclusions may well help organizations to understand the reasons that lead to the choice of a determined technology.

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Registration has begun for the eighth edition of the Internet Global Congress (IGC), which will be held in Barcelona from May 29 to June 1. This year’s contest offers two registration options: the first is free of charge and grants admission to the plenary sessions only; the second requires payment and additionally includes admission to the thematic sessions. Registration in both cases must be done online.

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